Crossing the Border: pastoral theology and psychotherapy

Abstract

Contemporary accounts of pastoral theology recognize the significance for pastoral care and counselling of psychotherapeutic approaches such as psychodynamic counselling, person-centred counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, and systemic counselling. Theology may be depicted as selectively importing ideas and practices from an essentially secular psychotherapeutic enterprise. However, historical consideration reveals that the disciplinary boundary between pastoral theology and psychotherapy is far from distinct: various forms of psychotherapy may, in fact, be understood as strands of heterodox pastoral theology.